


Becoming a Memory, Becoming a Treasure

by Annaelle



Series: An Anchor, A Port in a Storm [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Julie Molina, Bisexual Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Established Julie/Flynn, F/F, F/M, Gay Alex (Julie and The Phantoms), I think I accidentally made it so that they've all dated at one point, Lesbian Flynn (Julie and The Phantoms), M/M, Oops?, Pansexual Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Post-Canon, Reggie Finds His family, you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:07:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27384691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annaelle/pseuds/Annaelle
Summary: “You sure you want me to do this?”Julie glanced at Reggie, who was bouncing up and down on his toes beside her, looking at the apartment door in front of them with a mix of breathless excitement and trepidation.“Yeah,” he nodded. “Yeah, I wanna see her, I wanna know.”“Okay,” she nodded, turning back towards the door. “Okay.”She’d always been a little weak for Luke’s puppy eyes, but she hadn’t been prepared for Reggie’s.--Luke/Reggie, Julie/Flynn, Alex/Willie (past Alex/Luke and Alex/Reggie)
Relationships: (they are also sort of exes), (they're exes), Alex/Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn/Julie Molina, Luke Patterson/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: An Anchor, A Port in a Storm [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2021662
Comments: 227
Kudos: 556





	1. ONE

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone 
> 
> New to the fandom, so please, be kind :D 
> 
> I aged up everyone by two years for plot related purposes. I wanted the boys just a little older, so they were nineteen when they died, Julie is now seventeen. 
> 
> I have no idea when I'll have more chapters for you, but I'll try to get it out as soon as I can! :D 
> 
> Lots of Love,  
> Annaelle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT 18/12: The first three chapters have been updated and slightly edited to reflect some plot and relationship changes written into the prequel (Unfinished Business).

**Becoming a Memory, Becoming a Treasure**

_“When Someone You Love Becomes a Memory, the Memory Becomes a Treasure.”  
—unknown author_

_\-------_

**_ONE_ **

_“Blessed Are Those Who Mourn, For They Will Be Comforted.”_

_—Matthew 5:4_

**20 OCTOBER 2020**

**JULIE**

“You sure you want me to do this?” 

Julie glanced at Reggie, who was bouncing up and down on his toes beside her, looking at the apartment door in front of them with a mix of breathless excitement and trepidation. 

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Yeah, I wanna see her, I wanna know.” 

Julie smiled lightly and barely resisted the urge to pat him on the arm. The last thing they needed was Reggie becoming temporarily corporeal when she was about to knock on his little sister’s door. “Okay,” she nodded, turning back towards the door. “Okay.” 

She’s rehearsed what to say a million times since they’d found out Reggie’s little sister still lived in L.A. from Luke’s mom, since Reggie had begged her to give her the same kind of closure she’d helped Luke and his parents find. 

She’d always been a little weak for Luke’s puppy eyes, but she hadn’t been prepared for Reggie’s. 

Especially when the other boys had backed him up—they’d all known and babysat Reggie’s little sister. They all wanted to know what she was like as an adult; she’d been only nine when the boys had died.

Reggie had no idea what’d happened to their parents, no idea how they’d have reacted to their estranged kid dying at seventeen, no idea if they’d transferred their aggression from him to Maggie, and he _needed_ to know. He needed to know she was okay. 

He’d insisted on coming alone with Julie—hadn’t even let Luke come along. 

Julie was pretty sure Luke had been as surprised as she was, but neither of them had fought him on it. Probably because Alex had sworn he’d sit on Luke to keep him where he was. 

“I’m gonna knock,” Reggie said breathlessly, holding his hand up to the door, freezing less than an inch before his knuckles made contact with the wood. “I am.” 

“Go on,” Julie told him kindly. “You can do it.” 

“Right,” Reggie breathed. “Right.” 

The sound of his knuckles rapping on the wooden door echoed through the hallway, and she could hear footsteps on the other side of the door, and Julie felt almost as nervous as Reggie undoubtedly did. 

She could hear Reggie suck in a breath he didn’t need and hold it when the door swung open. 

The woman on the other side of the door didn’t look _anything_ like Reggie, and it kind of threw her. “Uh,” she said, blinking at the tall, dark-skinned woman in surprise. “Hi. My name’s Julie; I’m looking for Maggie? Peters?” 

“Oh, sure,” the woman said, stepping to the side and holding the door open. “Come on in, I’ll get her.” She walked inside without waiting for an answer and Julie and Reggie exchanged a wary look before following her inside. “You one of her new artists?” The woman called out over her shoulder as she walked further into the apartment. 

“Uh, no, I—” Julie began, but before she could continue, a second woman walked into the room and Reggie gasped sharply beside her. 

And this… this had to be Maggie. 

She and Reggie didn’t look a lot alike, but there were definitely similarities. They had the same kind of glossy dark hair—although hers was much longer than Reggie’s—with light, green eyes, and when Maggie smiled at the other woman, Julie recognized the tilt of her lips, because she’d seen it on Reggie’s so many times before. 

“I didn’t know we had company,” Maggie told the other woman, slipping her arm around her waist and leaning in to peck her cheek. Reggie gasped again, but Julie couldn’t risk looking at him now. 

“This is Julie,” the other woman said. “She said she’s here to see you.” 

Maggie turned to her, smiling the smile that made her look so much like Reggie it almost hurt, and said, “Well, what can I do for you, Julie?” 

“Uh,” Julie said again. “I, uh… Did you used to have a brother named Reggie?” 

That, evidently, took Maggie by surprise. “Yeah,” she nodded eventually. “I do—I did. How did you—” 

“I live in the house where he and the band used to practice,” Julie said, repeating the same half-truth she had told Luke’s parents. “Some of their things were still there, so… I went through it, and I found…” she pulled the little bracelet with cheap plastic beads and several instrument charms from her pocket. “I found Luke’s parents pretty easily, and they told me about other family members, and I thought you might like to have it back.” 

Maggie’s eyes were wide and filled with tears as she stared at the tiny bracelet—Reggie had told her he’d made it for Maggie’s ninth birthday, that they’d all made it, because she loved listening to them play, loved telling people that her big brother was in a band, and that Maggie had given it to him for their big performance at the Orpheum, as a good luck charm. 

He’d forgotten it in the garage when they’d left for the Orpheum. 

Reggie, now standing a few steps closer to his sister, was watching her eagerly, almost hungrily, his eyes red with unshed tears even as she stepped towards Julie, hand outstretched for the bracelet. 

“I’d forgotten,” she whispered. “I forgot he had this.” 

The bracelet looked tiny in her hand, clearly meant to fit a child’s wrist. 

“Tell her I love her,” Reggie rasped, and when he turned to look at Julie, she saw that tears were running down his cheeks. “I don’t care how, just make it up, just please. Tell her I love her.” 

Julie nodded jerkily, hoping the other two women in the room hadn’t noticed, and said quietly, “He must’ve loved you a lot. I mean,” she hesitated when Maggie looked up with eyes as teary as her brother’s, “I found a couple of songs too, and I could tell they were written for a kid, so I assumed…” 

Before Maggie could respond, a high-pitched cry rang out from one of the rooms in the back of the apartment and both women turned to look at the door in sync. 

“Babe,” Maggie said in a shaking voice. “Please go check on Reg, I need—” 

“Yeah,” the other woman said immediately, running her hand down Maggie’s side in a tender, comforting gesture. “Yeah, of course.” She glanced towards Julie with an unreadable look before turning and disappearing through one of the doors at the other end of the room. The cries—a baby’s cries, Julie realized belatedly—ceased a moment later, and she could vaguely hear humming. 

“You named your baby Reggie?” she blurted without thinking, without really stopping to think that this was a woman she didn’t know _at all_. 

She ignored Reggie’s stunned, “I’m an uncle?” and focused on Maggie, who still wasn’t looking at her. 

“Regina,” Maggie replied without really taking her eyes off the bracelet in her hand. “Although we end up calling her Reggie more often than not, so I guess, yeah.” She snorted a rather wet laugh and added, “I don’t think he’d ever have forgiven me if I named my kid Reginald. He would have _hated_ it.” 

“I would’ve,” Reggie said wetly, wiping his hand across his face. “I really would’ve.” 

“I think it’s beautiful,” Julie whispered. “That you’re remembering him like this.” 

Maggie looked up at her again, a little oddly, and now that Reggie was standing right next to her, Julie was struck for the first time just how much they _did_ actually look alike. “I’m sorry,” Julie said, “I know that was—out of line, I just…” she shrugged. “I’ve spent so much time in that garage, in the same room that they did, sorting through their things… I feel like I know them.” 

It wasn’t a _lie_ , per se. 

She _did_ feel like she knew the boys—although the fact that she could talk to their ghosts did help. 

Maggie’s expression softened a little. “I get that. Is there—is there a lot? I mean, is there more?” 

“Uh,” Julie stuttered, “I mean, yeah. It’s mostly junk though. A bunch of clothes that I was gonna give to Goodwill, notebooks with songs… I gave those to Luke’s parents. Not much else.” 

Maggie nodded shakily. “Okay. Well, if you… if you find anything else, can you—” 

“Of course,” Julie nodded, pulling out her phone. “Do you want me to add your contact info?” 

Maggie nodded and took Julie’s phone, tapping in her contact info while Reggie looked at her with wide eyes. “I don’t wanna go yet,” he pleaded, looking up at Julie desperately. “Keep talking to her. Please.” 

Julie took her phone back from Maggie, desperately searching for something to say when her eye fell on a picture hanging in the middle of the wall. It was very clearly the boys, but they were younger than she knew them—younger than they’d been when they died. 

It was just the three of them, with a little girl—who Julie assumed was a young Maggie—sitting in the middle, holding a guitar that was very nearly bigger than her. The three boys were clearly all helping her hold it up, and all four of them were grinning at the camera with wide, happy grins. She’d never seen them smile quite like that. 

“Is that them?” She asked, gesturing towards the picture. 

Maggie looked over her shoulder at the picture before she turned back to smile at Julie. “Yeah. Yeah, when they were... Fifteen, I think. I was five, so yeah. Fifteen.” 

Four years before they’d died. 

No wonder they looked so _young_. 

They’d barely been more than kids themselves. 

“Can you—would it—would it be okay if you told me a little more about them?” She asked quietly, still staring at the photo of her bandmates when they’d been younger. 

She was, actually, so busy staring at the picture that she didn’t notice the puzzled look Maggie shot her before she stepped up beside her to look at the picture. Reggie was too busy glancing at every other picture in the room, trying to catch a glimpse of what his little sister’s life had become, to notice the look too. “What do you want to know?” Maggie finally asked. 

“Just…” Julie hesitated. “Anything. What were they like?” 

Maggie smiled wistfully. “They were thick as thieves. I can’t remember a time that Luke and Alex weren’t there, so… I know they’d been friends since kindergarten. Well, Luke and Reggie at least. I think they met Alex later on, but that was before I was born.” 

“We met Alex in third grade,” Reggie piped in. “He beat up a bully for me.” 

Julie smiled despite herself. 

“They were always singing and making music,” Maggie continued. “Ever since I could remember. And when they formed the band, and Reggie had to babysit me, I’d usually just get to sit and watch them. I never minded.” When Julie looked at her, she saw that tears were running down Maggie’s cheeks again, but she was still smiling a small wistful smile. “I loved watching them practice.” 

She suddenly laughed and said, “I had a crush on Alex when I was little. I even asked him to marry me when we were both grown-ups.” 

“Awe,” Julie chuckled. “Did he say yes?” 

“No,” Maggie smiled, shaking her head lightly. “No, he was really sweet about it though. Told me that he didn’t like girls all that much, but that if he was ever going to like one, it would definitely have been me.” She laughed wetly again and added, offhand, “I caught him and Reggie kissing a little after that, and then my father—” she cut off and shook her head with a sad smile before she whispered, “I definitely had to believe him after all that.” 

“What?” Julie blurted, glancing towards Reggie, who looked both flushed and horrified. 

“You saw that?” He squeaked, even though he knew his sister couldn’t hear him. 

Maggie chuckled. “Yeah, I… it was surprising to me too. I always thought Reggie was a little sweet on Luke, the way they were together, but then…” she shrugged helplessly. “I guess Alex and Reggie spent so much time together that the idea of them makes sense too. It’s one of the things I guess I’ll never really know. I also distinctly remember being devastated to find out that not only did Alex not like girls, he liked my _brother_ instead though.” 

“It’s a cute story,” Julie choked, trying her hardest not to turn to Reggie and _shout_ , because _how did she not know about this yet_?! 

“I guess, yeah,” Maggie nodded. “He wrote country songs for me. Luke _hated_ them, but he’d play the ones Reggie wrote for me anyway.” 

“He didn’t hate them,” Reggie pouted. 

They fell silent, staring at the photo for a minute before the other woman—Maggie’s wife, she assumed—walked into the room, cradling a swaddled baby in her arms. “She won’t settle,” she said, walking up to Maggie with an apologetic smile. “I’m thinking she wants her momma.” 

“I’ll leave you to it,” Julie said immediately, although Reggie pouted. “Thank you, for… answering my questions. I know you didn’t have to do that.” 

“Thank you,” Maggie said. “For bringing me—just thank you.” She reached out to shake Julie’s hand, pausing in the middle of the handshake with a puzzled expression. “I’m sorry, what did you say your name was again?” 

“Julie,” Julie replied. “Julie Molina.” 

“Julie,” Maggie repeated. “Thank you, Julie.” 

Julie nodded jerkily and smiled before turning and walking out the front door. Reggie followed her, although he could probably have stayed a little longer if he wanted to. 

She waited until they were outside before she grabbed Reggie’s jacket and dragged him off into an alley. “What the hell, Reggie? You and Alex? What about Willie? What about _Luke_?” 

Reggie gave her a wide eyed look and sputtered, “Wha—there’s nothing—what _about_ Luke?” 

Julie raised an eyebrow at him. “Reggie. You are about as subtle as a brick. I know you’re in love with him.” 

“Wha—no–I’m not—” Reggie spluttered, before he heaved a sigh. “Does Luke know?” 

“No,” Julie scoffed. “Only ‘cause he’s the only person who’s actually more oblivious than you are.” Reggie blinked at her and she heaved a sigh, letting him go and taking a step back. 

“So you and Alex?” She prompted. 

Reggie sighed. “It wasn’t… okay, so we didn’t start out as a real serious thing, you know? It was right after Luke and Alex broke up and we kind of just fooled around when we felt like it.” He wrapped his arms around himself and admitted, “We tried dating a few years after we first started fooling around but it didn’t—it didn’t work out.” 

He shrugged a little helplessly. “It wasn’t a big deal. I was really happy for him when he met Willie.” 

“Wait,” Julie shook her head, “Luke and Alex dated?” 

“Oh,” Reggie frowned. “Yeah, for like a year when we were fourteen. Well, fourteen to fifteen, I guess. It’s how his parents found out he was gay. Or,” he amended, “it’s why he decided to tell them in any case. They decided they were better off friends, but it still took Alex a while to get over it.” 

Julie nodded slowly. “There’s so much I don’t know about you guys yet,” she finally said in a small voice. 

Reggie presser forward and slung an arm around het shoulders. “That’s ‘cause we’ve known each other for fifteen years, Jules. It’s like we don’t know everything about you and Flynn and Carlos yet.” 

He shook her playfully. “Give it some time.” 

Julie laughed. “I guess.” They started walking again and she looked up at him, feeling a little apprehensive. “You happy we went to see her?” 

“Yeah,” Reggie said slowly. “Definitely. Thanks, Molina.” 

Julie grinned and pressed into his side. “No problem.” 

This… this she was the least she could do.

  
  
  



	2. TWO

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh... 
> 
> That took much less long than I expected it to.  
> Still don't know where this is going exactly, but these characters are SO fun to write! 
> 
> Thanks for all the love, everyone!
> 
> Love  
> Annaelle
> 
> PS Thanks to my darling beta, who has not watched the show and has no clue what's going on but still reads over samples for me :p I'd be helpless without you, darling.
> 
> EDIT 18/12: The first three chapters have been updated and slightly edited to reflect some plot and relationship changes written into the prequel (Unfinished Business).

**_TWO_ **

_“Life is like a Beautiful Melody, Only the Lyrics Are Messed Up.”_

_—Hans Christian Andersen_

**20 OCTOBER 2020**

**REGGIE**

Seeing Maggie again had… it’d soothed the sharp edges of something broken deep inside Reggie’s chest. Something that had been hurting so badly for so long he didn’t even realize it hurt until it stopped. She was an adult, and she was married— _to a woman_ ! How would his father have taken _both_ of his kids turning out to be gay?—and had a baby that she’d named after him, and it didn’t look like their parents had been as shitty to her as they had been to him. 

He walked home with Julie, keeping his arm slung around her shoulders because they could do that now, even if none of them knew _why_ , mostly keeping their conversation light and easy. 

He’d have to warn Alex, when they got back to the studio, that Julie knew that they’d fooled around and dated, and that the chances that Luke was going to find out were suddenly _much_ higher. 

It wasn’t that they’d intentionally kept it a secret… at first, anyway. 

At first, it’d been awkward, because Luke and Alex hadn’t been broken up _that_ long, and though it had been amicable, it felt a little like they were crossing a line that couldn’t be uncrossed ever again. Reggie hadn’t actually meant for anything to happen between him and Alex; he’d sought out his friend to ask how he’d known he liked boys, how he’d felt when Luke kissed him, if he’d ever looked at girls the same way he looked at boys, because Reggie _did_. 

Reggie _loved_ girls. 

But… but… Reggie was also 99.9% sure he’d been in love with Luke Patterson since the day they’d met. 

By the time Reggie had figured that out though, Luke had already dated Alex, broken up with Alex, and started dating a girl named Tawnie or Tiffany or something. So he’d turned to Alex instead. 

Alex, who had smiled at him when Reggie said he didn’t know if he’d want to kiss a guy the way he’d kissed girls, shrugged and said, “So kiss me, see how that feels.”

Reggie had never really been able to resist a dare, so he had. 

It’d kind of spiraled from there, and they’d just… kind of kept doing it. 

They’d never quite gotten around to telling Luke or Bobby about it because neither of them thought it was a big deal. They fooled around when they felt like it, but they weren’t in love—they were best friends, and Reggie loved the hell out of Alex and he knew Alex felt the same, but they weren’t… 

It wasn’t romantic love. 

He didn't think so anyway. 

It’d taken Reggie some time to admit that though, even to himself. Alex had figured it out first—Alex always did know these things before Reggie did.

“So,” Julie said as they turned the corner to walk into her street. “Are you gonna talk to Luke?” 

“About Maggie?” Reggie deflected deliberately. “Obviously. He and Alex might wanna pop in at some point too.” 

Julie drew him to a stop and gave him a _look_. 

Reggie heaved a sigh and hung his head. 

“There’s really nothing to talk about,” he shrugged. “I mean, I think I… I think I’m cool with Luke not being into me like that, you know?” 

Julie slapped him up the head. 

“Ow,” he whined. “What was that for?”

“Oh, _dio mio_ ,” Julie groaned, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation. “I give up.” She stalked forward, leaving Reggie standing dumbfounded on the sidewalk for a second before he chased after her. 

Luke and Alex were throwing a basketball between them restlessly on the driveway, clearly waiting for Julie and Reggie to show up. “There you are,” Luke exclaimed as soon as they came into view, rushing forward to grab at Reggie’s shoulders. “How’d it go? What does she look like? Did she buy Julie’s story? Are you okay?” 

Reggie stumbled back a little, taken aback by the onslaught of questions, but Alex popped up behind him and steadied him with a hand pressed to his back. 

“Ugh,” Julie snorted. “You guys are hopeless.” 

She left them standing on the driveway, walking into the house after rolling her eyes at them. Reggie was pretty sure she was just going inside to text Flynn so they could _gossip_ about them. 

“It was fine,” he told Luke and Alex. “She’s—she’s great. I mean, she, uh…” His eyes watered and he swallowed thickly. “She named her kid after me.” 

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he said it, and Alex made a soft noise before he folded his arms around Reggie and held him in a tight hug. “Oh, Reg,” he said quietly, leaning his forehead against Reggie’s temple, and Reggie sagged against him gratefully. Seeing his sister had taken more out of him than he had thought it had, and now that Alex was holding him and Luke was coming to terms with someone crying in front of him, it hit him _hard_. 

Alex’s hugs really were the best. 

Luke, it seemed, had finally processed and accepted that Reggie was crying and tumbled headfirst into panic, rushing closer too, pressing his palms to Reggie’s cheeks, rubbing at his tears with his thumbs. “Of course she did,” Luke said softly. “You were the best big brother. She _adored_ you.” 

Reggie sobbed dryly, pitching forward to tuck his face in the crook of Luke’s neck, wrapping his arms around his best friend. Alex moved with him, staying pressed close so that Reggie was effectively cradled between them, letting him sob out the tension, the grief, the nerves—

Letting him work through everything meeting his sister again had brought up. 

He wasn’t sure how long they stood there, how long Alex and Luke held him and let him cry, but he knew that his eyes felt dry and scratchy by the time he looked up, and Luke’s eyes were distinctly red too, and he could hear Alex sniffing a little too. 

“I’m okay,” he whispered. “Thanks, guys.” 

“Duh,” Alex said affectionately, leaning in to press a kiss to the corner of Reggie’s lips without thinking about it, just like he had a hundred times before when Reggie had been upset, before freezing abruptly when he realized this was the first time he’d done that in front of Luke. 

Reggie froze too, swallowing thickly before he dared to look up at Luke, who was looking between them with a bewildered—and slightly hurt—expression. 

“Uh,” Reggie said eloquently. 

“I—uh,” Alex stuttered, cheeks flaming, pulling his hands away from Reggie and holding them up defensively. “I’m sorry?” 

“What is going on?” Luke said harshly, eyes flicking from Reggie to Alex and back. 

Reggie opened his mouth to say something, but when no words came out, he shut it again. “Luke,” Alex started, but Luke shook his head and stepped back, looking at them with an expression that made Reggie’s insides clench painfully. 

He ran a hand through his messy hair and shook his head. “Fine,” he spat angrily. “Fine.” 

Before Reggie or Alex could say anything, he disappeared with a soft plop. 

“Shit,” Reggie cursed, running his hands through his hair. “ _Shit_. Of all the ways he could’ve found out.” 

“I’m sorry,” Alex said anxiously. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t thinking.” He wrung his hands together nervously, chewing on his lower lip. 

“No, it’s—” Reggie sighed. “Julie found out today too. I was gonna talk to you about telling him, but…” 

“Yeah,” Alex sighed. “Yeah, we probably should’ve handled that better.” 

Reggie bit his lower lip before he told Alex, “I’ll go find him. Talk to him.” He rubbed his hands over his upper arms and smiled weakly at the other boy. “He’s probably mostly pissed that we didn’t tell him anything. And as much as you suck at change, Luke is _just as bad_.” 

“Yeah,” Alex chuckled weakly. “Yeah, he is.” 

Reggie could see Alex hesitate, could see him thinking something through before he stepped forward and very deliberately took Reggie’s face in his hands before pressing the softest, most chaste kiss they had ever shared—the first kiss since Alex had told him they needed to stop their romantic relationship—to his lips.

It tasted remarkably like goodbye. 

“I’ll go find Willie,” Alex said quietly when he leaned back. “Tell him too. He should know before Luke runs into him and tells him something that isn’t—”

“Yeah,” Reggie nodded. “Okay. Good luck.” 

“You too,” Alex told him, smiling genuinely before he stepped back and disappeared with a plop. 

“Right,” Reggie said. He thought about where Luke would go, about where he’d try to hide from him and Alex, before sighing. There really was only one spot Luke would go to. 

“Here goes nothing,” he told himself, and popped away. 

\------------

**MAGGIE**

Maggie walked into the office with a bit of a spring in her step, the bracelet that her brother had once made her now sized to fit her wrist and sitting just below her watch. “Hey Maggie,” Andi said as soon as Maggie had walked into her own office, leaning against the door casually. “Long time no see.” 

Maggie snorted a laugh as she sat down at her desk and pulled her laptop out of her purse. “Well I did have a baby, Andi. It’s called maternity leave.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Andi rolled her eyes and walked in, settling in the chair across the desk. “Rub it in. You do not get to look like that,” she gestured towards Maggie vaguely, “twelve weeks after given birth to a literal human being. You’re giving us all a bad name.” 

Maggie laughed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Any interesting artists pop up while I was gone?” 

“Eh,” Andi shrugged. “Trevor Wilson’s kid isn’t bad, but she’s not good enough to stand out, I don’t think. There was one band with a lot of potential, but I haven’t been able to get in touch with them just yet.” She shrugged. “I tried to pitch the lead singer after a show, but an angry parent interrupted.” 

“Oof,” Maggie winced. 

Angry parents were the _worst_ thing about trying to recruit successful young artists. 

“What’s the band?” She asked, typing in her password and opening her search engine immediately. “Want me to do some digging?” 

“Sure,” Andi said casually. “It’s Julie and the Fat Ones. Phantoms? I can’t recall.” She got to her feet elegantly and said, “If you can find and book ‘em, they’re all yours.” She walked out of the office, turning at the door to smile genuinely and say, “Welcome back.” 

Maggie grinned. “Thanks, Andi.” 

She turned back to her laptop and typed in _Julie and the—_ Before she’d even completed the second word, suggestions and results were springing up, including a few videos. She looked through the options for a moment before deciding on the video with the most views—an absurd and impressive number, considering it had only been up for a week—titled ‘Great’. 

She clicked the link, and the video played.


	3. THREE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!
> 
> Thank you so much for the amazing response to this work! I promise I will continue writing as much as I can, but I'll soon have to return to doing SOME of my uni work too 😅
> 
> Unfortunately even a lockdown and a pandemic doesn't stop my profs from assigning essays and research papers. 
> 
> See you soon! 
> 
> Love,  
> Annaelle
> 
> EDIT 18/12: The first three chapters have been updated and slightly edited to reflect some plot and relationship changes written into the prequel (Unfinished Business).

**THREE**

“ _Ein Freund ist ein Mensch, der die Melodie deines Herzen kennt und sie dir vorspielt, wenn du sie vergessen hast.”_

_—Albert Einstein_

**20 OCTOBER 2020**

**LUKE**

Luke… Luke was _reeling_. 

He’d always trusted Alex and Reggie with _everything_ and all the while they were—they were keeping something as big as _this_ from him?! 

He wouldn’t have _cared_ if they were dating, if they’d… if they’d fallen in love with each other—he would’ve been _happy_ for them. 

Really. 

He _would’ve_.

He crossed his arms over his chest and stared out at the waves, pressing his lower lip into a pout. 

He would have found a way to be happy if his ex-boyfriend and his other best friend—who Luke had been in love with for… possibly as long as he could remember—fell in love with each other. 

They were the most important people in his life. 

Luke loved both of them—he’d do anything for them. 

He’d have done this too. 

He wrapped his arms around himself and dug his fingers into his upper arms, doing his best not to cry. Reggie had been his best friend for as long as he could remember, had been the first person other than his mom that Luke had ever loved, and he’d kind of… he’d kind of taken Reggie’s attention for granted. He’d taken it for granted that Reggie’s eyes were always on him, and now that they weren’t…

Now that Reggie and Alex had something going on—because that kiss, little as it had been, had very clearly not been the first one—and Luke was going to have to let Reggie go. It probably meant something that he was more upset about losing Reggie—who he had never dated or even kissed—than he was over the fact that he was losing him to an ex-boyfriend. 

And… and the more he thought about it the less sense it made, because Luke remembered that guy Alex had been seeing before their deaths and it hadn’t been Reggie. And _yet…_ he recalled all the nights Reggie had spent with Alex, supposedly sleeping in his guest room, recalled Reggie getting kicked out because his father had walked in on them ‘hugging’— 

God, it’d been right in front of him the whole time, hadn’t it? 

“Here you are.” 

Luke closed his eyes in exasperation and thumped his head forward to rest on his knees. He should’ve known that one of them would find him here. 

He didn’t look up when Reggie sat down next to him, pressed close like he always did, like _nothing_ was different, like he and Luke were still balancing on that razor’s edge between friends and something else, something new and terrifying and _amazing_. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He rasped, peeking up to glance towards Reggie. 

“Because it’s not… It’s not what you think,” Reggie sighed. Luke turned his head a little more, facing Reggie fully. The other boy was blushing pretty badly, but he looked determined to say whatever it was that he had in mind, and Luke knew better than to try to interrupt. 

“We’re not dating,” Reggie said, and Luke let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding.

“Then what was that?” He demanded, sitting up straight to look at Reggie properly. “And don’t tell me it was nothing—that was clearly not the first time you kissed. And why… Why were you weird about it?” 

Reggie sighed, rubbing his fingers through his hair—something he only did when he was stressed. 

“Reggie,” Luke implored, and his friend sighed again. 

“We’re not dating… _anymore_ ,” he admitted, and Luke let out a noise as though he’d been punched in the solar plexus, but Reggie continued nonetheless. “We… we fooled around and hooked up… a couple of times. Mostly when we were both single, and after a while we just... It was—” he hesitated, and Luke swallowed thickly, anger and jealousy and _hurt_ buzzing under his skin, making him feel like he was virtually vibrating on the spot. 

“Okay, look,” Reggie said, rubbing his hands over his thighs nervously. “When I… when I thought I might be into guys too, I… Alex helped me figure it out. Helped me figure myself out. It kind of just went from there, and then we never really stopped, and we rolled into a relationship for a while. But we’re not,” he looked at Luke with a pleading expression. “We’re not in love, Luke. We never were. It’s why it didn’t work, why Alex called it quits.” 

Luke felt like crying. 

“Why didn’t you just _tell me_?” He pleaded, glaring at Reggie. “You could’ve told me.” 

“It was weird,” Reggie whined. “You and Alex hadn’t been broken up that long when we first—and we didn’t—by the time we realized it was something that was gonna happen more often, something we wanted to be a little more serious about, it’d been years—too long to say anything without things becoming really awkward.” 

“Awkward?” Luke echoed. “ _Awkward_ ?!” He jumped to his feet and shouted, “You spent _years_ sleeping with Alex and you _lied_ about it, Reggie! Of course things are awkward!” 

He regretted shouting immediately when Reggie shrank back, but it was too late to take it back, and more than that; he didn’t _want_ to take it back. He _was_ hurt that his friends hadn’t confided in him, that Alex had known how Luke felt about Reggie—more than Luke had, half the time—and had still fooled around with Reggie, that he’d… that he’d not _cared_ enough to stop. 

“I’m sorry!” Reggie yelled back, getting to his feet too. “I’m sorry, Luke. I didn’t mean—I _know_ you and Alex were—it’s a big no-no, sleeping with your best friend’s ex, but he’s also _my_ best friend, and I—” 

“It’s not about Alex,” Luke cried exasperatedly, throwing his hands up. 

“Then what is it about?” Reggie yelled. “Just… Just tell me what I need to say, Luke, and I’ll say it.” 

There were tears swimming in Reggie’s eyes, and Luke _hated_ this, hated fighting with Reggie, because arguments _terrified_ Reggie, but he was—he was _so angry_. 

“I don’t care that you slept with Alex,” he exclaimed, stomping forward to poke Reggie in the shoulder. “I care that he slept with _you_ , Reggie.” He exhaled shakily. “You fucking dork. He knew. He knew how I felt, he was the first person I told—the only person I _actually told_ and he… he was fooling around with you the whole time. Jesus, Reggie, I’m not mad at _you_ , I’m mad at _Alex!_ ” 

Reggie stared at him, wide-eyed and openmouthed, and Luke immediately wished he could take _everything_ he’d just said back. 

“How you felt about me?” Reggie whispered hoarsely. “You—you had feelings for me?” 

“Have,” Luke admitted quietly. “Reggie, I _have_ feelings for you.” 

“Oh,” Reggie breathed. “Oh.” 

“Yeah,” Luke sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets and scuffing the toe of his Vans in the sand. “I told Alex, and now it turns out you and him were—” 

“When?” Reggie demanded hoarsely. “When did you tell him?” 

Luke blinked. “I—a couple of weeks after I figured it out. After we helped you sneak into your parents’ house to see Maggie? I think he figured it out then, but we didn’t talk about it until a few weeks after. And then when we got the Orpheum gig, I… ” he said slowly. “I was going to tell you after the show, even thought about just kissing you right there on stage, but then—” 

“Then we died,” Reggie whispered. 

“Yeah,” Luke whispered. 

“We weren’t together anymore by then,” Reggie said softly. “We broke up a few weeks into January. Alex—we weren’t—it wasn’t working anymore. So he didn’t—” he wrung his hands together and whispered, “Nothing’s happened since then.” 

Luke blinked. 

Oh. 

“Oh,” he said. 

“Yeah,” Reggie nodded, pushing his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. “Oh.” 

They stood in awkward silence for a moment before Luke asked, timidly, “Are we okay?” 

Reggie shrugged and looked up at Luke from beneath dark eyelashes, biting down on his lower lip so hard it was all swollen and red and shiny when he finally released it and Luke _could not stop looking._ “You tell me,” Reggie told him. “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you. We should’ve. Alex wanted to, but I wasn’t—I wasn’t ready to tell anyone, so we kept it a secret. I’m sorry.” 

“No, I am,” Luke said immediately, starting forward to grab Reggie’s shoulders. “I shouldn’t have freaked out so badly. I was—I was jealous. I’m sorry.” 

Reggie’s cheeks flushed again, and Luke’s heart skipped a beat when Reggie took a tiny step closer, so they were essentially pressed chest to chest. “I don’t think I minded that part,” he admitted shyly, smiling a tiny, hopeful smile at Luke. “If you’re… if you’re still, I mean, if you—” 

Luke cupped his face in his hands and kissed him. 

Reggie jerked in surprise, nearly falling over backwards, but Luke didn’t let him go, and then he realized Reggie was kissing him _back_ , and it was— 

It was everything Luke had hoped for and more. 

Reggie’s lips parted and the kiss deepened, and Luke moaned, a little desperately, pressing into Reggie’s touch eagerly. They were kissing sloppily, Reggie’s arms looped around Luke’s neck and one of Luke’s hands slipped into Reggie’s back pocket, pulling the other boy flush against him and if they weren’t dead and invisible to everyone, it _really_ wouldn’t be appropriate to kiss like this in public. 

“Wow,” Luke blurted when they finally parted, chest heaving, staring at Reggie with wide eyes. “Alex did _not_ teach you how to kiss like that.” 

Reggie _giggled_ , tightening his arms around Luke’s neck and rubbing their noses together. “How do you know he didn’t? It’s been like four years since you last kissed him, he could’ve picked up some new things in the meantime.” 

“Hmm,” Luke hummed, leaning in to kiss Reggie again, softer and sweeter this time. “Remind me to thank him later then.” 

Reggie laughed against Luke’s lips, and Luke couldn’t stop smiling either, couldn’t bring himself to pull away from him, couldn’t stop kissing him. Reggie, thankfully, seemed to be in a similar predicament and kissed him back just as eagerly, digging his fingers into Luke’s hair. 

It was so easy to fall back into a deeper, searing hot kiss, to slip his arms around Reggie’s waist and open his mouth, to rub himself up against Reggie’s hip, slipping his hands down over his ass. They broke apart with a moan, panting, and Reggie blinked blearily at him. 

“Okay, we cannot do that in public,” Reggie insisted. He glanced down between them, and Luke’s cheeks flamed abruptly when he realized just how much kissing Reggie had aroused him. 

He breathed a laugh and pressed his forehead against Reggie’s. “We should’ve done this years ago,” he murmured. “We could’ve been doing this all along.” Reggie made a soft, small noise and leaned in to kiss him again, soft and short this time. 

“We should go home,” he said. “Before they come looking for us.” 

“Yeah,” Luke nodded. “Yeah.” 

It took them another hour before they stopped kissing long enough to pop back to the studio. 

\---------

**JULIE**

She and Alex were on the couch, her feet on Alex’s lap as they watched F.R.I.E.N.D.S. reruns. Alex had been ecstatic to find out there were more seasons, and he and Julie had slowly been rewatching everything so he could catch up. 

It was a nice way to and to get to know each other better. 

Alex, for one, _hated_ Ross with a passion that was hilarious to see. 

“They’ve been gone a while,” Julie remarked when Netflix queued up another episode, glancing at her phone to check the time. “You think they’re okay?” 

“They’re fine,” Alex snorted. “They’re probably too busy making out to notice how long it’s been.” 

Julie laughed and shook her head, settling back on the couch to watch Chandler make a fool out of himself in front of a girl. “Is your girlfriend joining us later?” Alex asked after a while, and though Julie couldn’t _blame_ him for the question—Flynn did spend most afternoons with them—she took the opportunity to tease him with both hands.

“No,” she chuckled. “Is _your boyfriend_?” 

As she expected, Alex flushed and mumbled, “ _No_.” She laughed and poked at his stomach with her foot. 

Before they could say anything else, Luke and Reggie finally popped in, and Julie had to stop herself from bursting into laughter at the sight of them. Luke’s hair was a _disaster_ , sticking up at gravity defying angles, his cheeks were flushed and his lips were swollen. His top was wrinkled and _covered_ in sand, and Julie was pretty sure there was a hickey just on the underside of his jaw. 

Reggie, if possible, looked even _more_ ruffled. 

And he was _definitely_ sporting a few hickies. 

“Well hi there,” Alex drawled, raising both eyebrows at their friends. “Have fun? Just the two of you?” 

“Shut up,” Reggie snorted, shoving at Alex’s shoulder before sprawling on the couch next to him, one leg thrown casually over Alex’s thigh. Luke laughed too and plopped down between Alex and Julie, bumping his shoulder against Alex’s. “I’m sorry I freaked out,” he said quietly, and Julie could tell the words were meant only for Alex. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Alex replied equally quietly. 

They all fell silent and watched the tv for a few minutes—Julie diligently pretended not to notice the way Luke and Reggie were holding hands over Alex’s lap—before Luke perked up and said, “Oh, right, Alex, I need to thank you for teaching Reggie that thing, you know, where he uses his tongu—” 

Reggie shouted incoherently and lunged across Alex’s lap to clamp his hand over a hysterically laughing Luke’s mouth. Alex burst into laughter too and Julie yelped as the boys landed heavily on her lap before they rolled off the couch and onto the floor in a messy heap. 

Julie’s phone interrupted the moment, and they all looked at the ringing phone in surprise—Luke and Reggie’s heads just barely popping up over the couch. “Who’s calling you at this hour?” Alex demanded, leaning over to get a good look at the screen. 

“I don’t know,” she said. “Be quiet,” she told Luke and Reggie, who had resumed their struggle on the floor, as she picked up her phone and the muffled shouting quieted down immediately. 

“Hi, this is Julie,” she said cautiously. 

“Hi Julie,” a woman replied cheerfully. “I apologize for the late hour. It took us a while to track down your contact information. This is Josie from Destiny Management. You met one of our managers, Andi Parker, at Beats & Eats a few weeks ago?”

Julie sat bolt upright. 

“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Yes, I did. Hi.” The boys looked at her with identical, confused expressions, but she waved her hand at them, getting to her feet and pacing across the room. 

“Hi,” Josie from Destiny Management laughed. “I just wanted to let you know that another one of our managers saw your video and would very much like to make a personal appointment with you and your band to discuss a potential future partnership.” 

“That would be amazing,” Julie said, almost before Josie was done speaking. 

Josie laughed again and said, “Well, I assume you’re not available during weekdays as you’re still in school?” When Julie hummed in confirmation, she said, “How is Saturday at 12 at the Water Grill?” 

“That’s perfect,” Julie gushed. “I’m not eighteen though,” she added as an afterthought. “Would my dad be required to come along?” The boys were crowding around her, eager and excited, and she pressed a hand flat to Reggie’s chest to keep them at bay while Josie was still talking. 

“Not for this initial meeting,” Josie told her. “Your legal guardian is only required to attend and give permission once we make you an official offer and contracts need to be signed.” 

“Okay,” Julie nodded. “Perfect. I’ll be there. Thank you so much.” 

She hung up and looked up at the boys with a grin. 

“Well?” Luke demanded. 

“We got a meeting with a manager!” 

All three of the boys whooped in delight, and Luke rushed to hug her, lifting her clean off her feet in excitement. “This is going to be great!” He cheered. “We’re gonna be _legends_!” 

\-----------

**MAGGIE**

“Hey miss Peters?” 

Maggie looked up from her laptop screen to find Josie standing in the doorway. 

“What’s up, Josie?” she asked, leaning back in her chair and rubbing her eyes. She’d been staring at the screen and the Julie & the Phantoms’ various social media platforms for hours and her eyes felt like dry sandpaper. She still wasn’t sure what she was looking at. 

It wasn’t possible—but she’d… she’d recognize her brother—and the other boys—anywhere. 

“I got you that appointment you asked for?” Josie said hesitantly. “Saturday at 12.” 

“Perfect,” Maggie nodded. 

She looked back at the screen, frozen on a slightly blurred closeup of the guitarist and bassist. She wasn’t sure _what_ this was supposed to be, or _how—_

She was going to find out.


	4. FOUR

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> I think there'll only be one more chapter after this one, but no promises on when that'll be out. Uni research work is calling my name and I've neglecting it far too much already 😅 
> 
> The first scene in this chapter is rated a very tentative M, so practice caution ☺️ 
> 
> Thanks for the massive response and love! 
> 
> Love,  
> Annaelle

**FOUR**

_“Maybe it's like Mac says. Ever man winds up with the horse that suits him.”_ _  
—_ _Cormac McCarthy_

**24 OCTOBER 2020**

**REGGIE**

Reggie let Luke push him back into the studio, watching in amusement as he kicked the door shut before pushing Reggie down onto the couch, Reggie’s hands slipping up his thighs and around Luke’s waist when the other boy straddled him smoothly, pressing him back into the cushioned seat.

“Hi,” he breathed faintly, looking up at Luke breathlessly. “You know we only have like ten minutes to change and then pop to the restaurant, right?”

“Plenty of time,” Luke grinned, leaning down so his lips were just barely brushing over Reggie’s. “We haven’t had a second to ourselves all week.” Reggie’s heart squeezed a little in his chest in an odd mixture of fondness and exasperation before he nodded shakily, barely managing to smile before Luke’s lips were on his, his hands soft but insistent on Reggie’s cheeks.

Reggie kissed him back, slipping his fingers up into Luke’s messy hair for purchase, gasping against his lips when he deepened the kiss, tugging Reggie’s shirt up until they had to break the kiss to tug it over his head. “I know we’re supposed to change, but I don’t think this is the most efficient way to go about it,” Reggie remarked, grinning at the breathless look of desire and exasperation Luke gave him before he reeled Reggie back in for a much messier kiss this time, with clacking teeth and too much tongue, and Reggie loved every second of it.

Luke’s hold on his hair was just on the right edge of painful as he dragged Reggie’s head back, mouthing his way down his throat with hot, open-mouthed kisses. “Luke,” Reggie moaned, heart pounding wildly, fingers clenching in Luke’s loose shirt.

“What,” Luke grinned, lips curving into a smile against Reggie’s neck. “You want me to stop?”

“No,” Reggie squeaked, tightening his fingers in Luke’s shirt.

“Good,” Luke smirked, that great, devastating smirk that made Reggie’s knees wobble, and then the world tilted alarmingly for a moment as Luke maneuvered them sideways onto the couch, pressing Reggie flat on his back, his lips once again occupying Reggie’s in a downright filthy kiss as they writhed to get comfortable on the cramped surface.

They grappled for control for a while, Reggie impatiently tugging at Luke’s top and Luke feverishly attempting to unbutton Reggie’s trousers without breaking the kiss. Reggie groaned, eyes rolling back in his head and blunt fingernails digging into Luke’s shoulders when he bit down on the skin just above Reggie’s collarbone before soothing over the mark with his tongue.

“Luke,” he whined, slipping his hands down his back to his bottom, pulling Luke’s hips down to grind on his and holy fucking shit—

“We _really_ don’t have time for this,” Reggie panted as Luke’s teeth scraped against his earlobe.

“Then tell me to stop,” Luke told him, his eyes dark and pupils blown wide as he leaned in for a slower, deeper kiss than before. Reggie found it very hard to concentrate in general with Luke pressed against him like this, hard and warm and insistent, and he didn’t think he was strong enough to tell Luke to stop—nor did he _want_ him to.

Luke grinded down against him again and Reggie couldn’t contain the whimper that fell from his lips, and he could feel Luke smile against his lips.

“Someone’s excited,” he muttered, and Reggie kind of wanted to smack—or kiss—that mischievous grin from Luke’s lips. He did, pulling Luke down to kiss him again, slower and sweeter this time, slipping his hand down into the back pockets of Luke’s jeans to pull him closer.

“I thought that was the point,” Reggie gasped a little unsteadily, finally succeeding in ridding Luke of his _stupid_ shirt and getting both their jeans unbuttoned once they’d broken the kiss again. He rocked his hips up against Luke, eagerly leaning into another kiss, and he couldn’t suppress the whine that fell from his lips at the feel of Luke’s heated skin on his—it was incredible.

He felt like he was burning from the inside out, and he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think and he couldn’t stop—not that he really wanted to in the first place.

_plop._

“Hey guys, are you ready, Julie and Flynn are alre—woah!”

Reggie jerked away from Luke, who jerked away too, rolling right off the couch and onto the floor with a muted thud, staring wide-eyed at Alex, who’d covered his eyes with his hands, and had turned his back to them, cheeks flamed bright red. “I thought you were just changing clothes,” he said accusingly.

“I mean,” Luke said, having recovered from the shock and gotten back to his feet, looking remarkably unruffled, Reggie noted resentfully. “We would’ve gotten there eventually.”

Luke raised his eyebrows at Alex as Reggie struggled to his feet, any and all arousal squashed into oblivion by the mortification of being walked in on, buttoning his jeans back up regretfully. “Why are you—” Luke chuckled at Alex, stepping around the little end table to grab Alex’s hands and draw them down. “There’s literally nothing you haven’t seen from either of us.”

“That was different,” Alex squeaked, jerking his arm from Luke’s grasp, still blushing furiously—Reggie _got it_. “And _get dressed_. We have to go.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Luke chuckled, popping up to the loft to do exactly that.

Reggie’s hands shook a little as he retrieved his shirt from the floor, avoiding looking directly at Alex, because he was sure they’d both just burst into laughter—or tears—if they made eye contact.

“Well then,” Luke said cheerfully, popping back down when he’d put on a shirt and tossing an arm around each of their shoulders. “Let’s go.” Reggie exhaled shakily and managed to shoot an embarrassed grin towards Alex, who looked equal parts mortified and delighted.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Let’s.” 

\------------

**JULIE**

Julie was fidgeting, tapping her foot under the table as she and Flynn waited for the manager to show up. “Hey,” Flynn said softly, putting her hand on Julie’s thigh to still the constant movement. “Everything is going to be fine. This is just a first meeting.” She smiled lightly and knocked her shoulder against Julie’s. “The boys’ll be here, you’ll wow this agent, and we’ll see from there, okay?”

Julie laughed despite the nerves that were making her stomach clench, leaning into her girlfriend’s side gratefully.

“Okay,” she chuckled. “You’re right.”

She inhaled deeply and smiled at Flynn, blushing a little when the other girl pressed a quick kiss to her lips. Flynn took Julie’s hand and tangled their fingers together, resting their joined hands on her lap. 

“Did I tell you,” Julie said, in a bid to distract herself and Flynn from the impending meeting. “That Reggie and Luke _finally_ got their heads out of their asses?” Flynn laughed and shook her head, and Julie continued, “They’re almost _more_ annoying now. They can barely keep their hands to themselves.” She smiled lightly and added, “It is a little cute though.”

“Can they even,” Flynn frowned, tilting her head thoughtfully, “You know… Do that anymore? They’re ghosts. They’re made of air.”

“Ew,” Julie exclaimed, shoving at Flynn’s shoulder with her free hand. “I don’t know. I don’t wanna know! They’re my friends, I don’t wanna think about them… doing that.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust and shook her head again.

“Lies,” Flynn cackled. “You had a _massive_ crush on Luke, don’t deny it.”

“I didn’t—” Julie sputtered, cheeks flaming with a blush. “It wasn’t—I wasn’t as bad as Reggie. And besides… I have you.” It was a lame comeback and she knew it.

“Duh,” Flynn rolled her eyes. “Reggie’s crush on Luke can be seen from space, even now. They have even more chemistry than you and Luke do sharing a mike.”

Before Julie could reply, the boys popped into existence right in front of their table, Luke grinning wide and unrepentant while both Reggie and Alex looked flushed and embarrassed. Luke’s hair was so messy it almost looked like he’d stuck his fingers in a light socket, and Reggie was wearing exactly the same thing he had been earlier—at least Luke had changed his shirt.

“Really?” She said, raising an eyebrow at them, trying to look stern, even though the corner of her lips tilted up in a smile anyway. “Again? Can you not keep your hands to yourself for ten minutes?”

“Nope,” Luke replied cheerfully, just as Flynn said, “The boys are here?”

Julie nodded, and Alex, who’d been looking around, said, “And I think your manager is here too.”

Julie turned to look over her shoulder with a smile that immediately froze on her face. Reggie inhaled sharply too. “That’s—” he choked, “that’s not—that’s Maggie, Alex.”

“Maggie?” Luke squinted. “What’s Maggie doing here?”

But the pieces of the puzzle were snapping together in Julie’s mind. Maggie’s wife had mentioned that Maggie worked with artists, and the woman she’d spoken to on the phone earlier this week had never mentioned the name of the person she was supposed to meet here, and—potentially worst of all—she’d given Maggie her full name.

“Shit,” she cursed quietly. When Flynn looked at her, wide-eyed, she hissed, “That’s Reggie’s little sister. If she saw our video—”

Before anyone could say anything, Maggie had reached the table, glaring down at Julie with an impassive, unimpressed expression. “Don’t stand up,” she said coolly, and she didn’t sound anything like the kind, sweet woman Julie had met just a week earlier. “Here’s how this is going to go. I’m gonna sit, and you’re going to tell me exactly how many of my brothers’ band’s songs you stole from those notebooks before you gave them back, and exactly how you managed to get enough footage of them to fake a performance. If you’re lucky I might not sue you and blackball you in the entire industry.”

Julie stared at her, openmouthed, as did Reggie and the others.

Maggie sat down across from Julie and Flynn, barely sparing a glance towards Flynn before she refocused her attention on Julie. “I’m sure you’re not a bad kid,” she continued. “You wouldn’t have returned this,” she tapped the bracelet on her wrist lightly, “if you were. But,” she leaned forward and Julie noticed, for the first time, that Maggie was barely keeping it together, that her eyes were shiny with unshed, furious tears, “you have _no right_ using their music. I sure as hell didn’t give you permission and I know for a fact that Luke’s parents wouldn’t have either. So.” She leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I—,” Julie stuttered. “It’s not—it’s not like that.”

Maggie raised an eyebrow. “Then, pray tell, what _is_ it like?”

Julie opened her mouth, changed her mind and closed it again, looking helplessly at Flynn and the boys.

“Tell her,” Reggie said. “Just tell her everything.”

“Reg,” Luke started, and Julie wasn’t even sure what he was going to say, but she already knew he was thinking the same thing she was—they _couldn’t_ tell Maggie. She would _never_ believe them—she’d probably be even more likely to blackball her.

And to have her committed to an asylum.

“It’s complicated,” she finally said, looking away from the boys. “I don’t think—you wouldn’t believe me if I told you—”

“Try me,” Maggie said dryly. “I’m not letting this happen again, Julie. If you wanted to use their songs, their music, you should’ve gone about it differently.”

“I—” Julie stopped. Blinked. “You know about Trevor?”

This threw Maggie. “Of course I know,” she said. “How the hell do you know?”

“Damn it,” Reggie cursed, “ _tell her_. Tell her everything. Or,” he started forward, holding out his hand to Julie. “Make me corporeal, let me tell her. Please, just tell her.”

“Reggie, man, we can’t tell her,” Luke jumped in, pulling Reggie back. “She’ll never believe us. Or she’ll think she’s gone crazy. You don’t wanna do that to her, do you?” Reggie opened his mouth to protest, but Alex put a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back a little and shaking his head.

“It’s—they’re not—” Julie stuttered, “They’re lookalikes.” She could tell Flynn was trying to nod along with whatever she was trying to say, but Maggie _clearly_ wasn’t buying it, but it was the only thing she had, she had no idea what else she could say. “They’re not from around here,” she added. “They live in Sweden, which is why it’s a… a hologram band.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Maggie deadpanned.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Reggie cursed, lunging forward. Julie tried to twist away from him, to stop him from what he was trying to do, but she was too late, and his fingers closed on her forearm.

With a sudden _plop_ he became visible.

“What the _fuck_ ,” Maggie exclaimed, shoving her chair back and nearly tripping over it as she jumped to her feet. Her eyes were wide and stunned, Luke and Alex looked horrified and Reggie was looking at Maggie with a pleading expression. “It’s me,” he said, approaching her slowly, hands raised in supplication. “Mags, it’s me, I promise, I can—we’re ghosts, somehow, but when we make music, people can hear us, and _see us_ and—” he gestured to Julie helplessly, “She’s singing with us, she’s helping us.”

Maggie looked from Reggie to Julie and back, mouth hanging slightly open in abject shock.

“What the hell are you trying to pull?” She demanded hoarsely. “My brother’s been dead for twenty-five years.” She looked at Reggie, although it did look like it physically hurt her to do so, and said, “I don’t know why you’re doing this, but it’s _not_ funny.”

“Mags, it’s me,” Reggie repeated, sounding like he was on the verge of tears. “I swear.”

“ _Don’t call me that_ ,” Maggie spat, snatching her purse from the back of her chair and shaking her head. “I don’t know who you are, but leave me and my family the hell alone.”

She turned to Julie. “If I ever find you using their songs again, I will make sure you will _never_ have a career in music, no matter how good you are.” With that, she turned on her heel and stormed outside, slamming the door so hard behind her that the everyone who wasn’t already looking at them turned to stare. Reggie looked like he’d been slapped in the face, and Julie felt terrible for him, but also wanted to slap him up the head again, because there was _no way_ that could’ve gone well.

“Reggie,” Luke whispered, coming up behind Reggie, trailing his hand down Reggie’s arm lightly. “Reggie, come on.”

“No,” Reggie said, “No, I’m going after her.”

“No, hey,” Alex intervened, stepping up in front of Reggie and pressing a hand to his chest. “Let me, okay? I’ll go. It might be easier if it’s not you.” He looked at Julie when Reggie nodded reluctantly and held out his hand. “Come on,” he said. “We can walk outside, you make me visible, and I’ll go find her, try to explain everything.”

“Yeah,” Julie nodded shakily, “Okay.” She stood and followed Alex outside in a daze.

How did everything go south _this fast_?

\------

**ALEX**

It wasn’t hard to find Maggie when he put his mind to it.

She was walking _fast_ , but she was also clearly still very shaken by what had happened in the restaurant.

Not that Alex could blame her, of course.

Reggie _really_ should’ve thought that through more, although Alex had to admit he’d been at a loss too. There really wasn’t a reasonable explanation of why Julie was performing with three guys who looked and sounded just like a 90s rock band that had died of eating bad hotdogs.

He took a deep breath and popped around the corner, turning and waiting for Maggie.

Alex could _see_ the exact moment she saw him. She froze in the middle of the sidewalk, wide eyes staring at him in disbelief and fear and confusion, and Alex felt horrible for her.

“Hey,” he said softly, approaching her slowly. “That went pretty badly.”

“You’re not real,” Maggie said hoarsely, shaking her head desperately. “You’re dead. I saw your bodies—you’re dead. We buried you.”

Alex was momentarily taken aback—why the hell had she seen their bodies, she’d been _nine_ —before he said, “I am. I’m also here. It’s—you know, we don’t really know how it happened either. But we’re here. When we perform with Julie, other people can see us, can hear us—and now, whenever we touch her, we become—” he tapped his own chest and said, “corporeal. Just for a little while, but…”

“This is insane,” Maggie pleaded, a tear running down her cheek.

Alex chanced another step closer, and though she tensed up, she didn’t run from him. “I know,” he said. “I know, okay. But it’s real. And none of this is Julie’s fault, I promise. She had our permission to use the songs, she wrote half of them with us. And I know, I know this is a lot to take in, Mags. No one expects that you just accept this right away. Just…”

He held out his hand.

“Please let me give you Julie’s address and phone number so you can reach us.”

She looked at him for a long time, and he let her look, because he understood that this had to be overwhelming and weird and downright insane. “Okay,” she finally whispered, hoarsely. “Okay.” She pulled her phone from her pocket and unlocked it before she handed it to him, and Alex was so glad he’d had time to mess around with Julie’s phone, because at least now he knew what to do.

When he’d typed in the address and phone number, he saved the contact and handed the phone back, his fingers brushing past hers accidentally.

“I’m sorry,” he said immediately, pulling back and taking a step back, but Maggie shook her head, grasping at his wrist to pull him back.

“You’re real,” she whispered, staring at where her fingers were wrapped around his wrist, “I can—I can feel you.” She turned his wrist over and pressed her fingertips to his pulse point, and Alex let her, because it was one of the first things they’d done when they realized they became corporeal when Julie touched them too.

“But no pulse,” he said quietly, putting his hand on top of hers lightly.

Maggie looked up at him. “But no pulse,” she echoed. “You’re still dead.”

“Yeah,” Alex nodded.

Maggie stared at their hands for another long few minutes before she dropped her hand and stepped back. “If—tell Reggie I’m sorry,” she said hoarsely. “I don’t know if I—if this—” she looked up and swallowed thickly. “Just tell him I’m sorry.”

Alex nodded. “I will.”

Maggie nodded tightly, shot him one last, long look before she exhaled shakily and pushed past him, resuming her way home at a brisk pace.

Alex sighed. “That could’ve gone worse.”

\--------------

**MAGGIE**

She sat on the floor in the walk-in closet, her laptop beside her with one of Julie and the Phantoms’ videos paused and the contents of three separate boxes with photos strew out on the floor around her.

She didn’t have a lot of photos from when she and Reggie had been little, because her father had been a drunk and a homophobic piece of crap who’d tried to get rid of everything that Reggie had ever touched when he’d realized Reggie liked boys. She’d been able to save a few things and pictures—her mother, in a rare fit of clarity, had helped her hide the boxes with pictures until she moved out at seventeen—and hadn’t really dared look at most of them since Reggie had died.

She didn’t know what to make of—of _anything_ that had happened today.

It seemed so impossible, but the feel of Alex’s skin under her fingers had been _real_ , the contact information he’d put into her phone was _real_ , was a real house in a nice neighborhood that looked exactly like the house in the first video she’d watched.

“Sweetheart?”

“In here,” Maggie replied quietly, barely looking up when T’Nia walked in.

She was staring at a photo of her ten-year-old brother holding her as a baby, tears running down her cheeks silently. “Hey,” T’Nia said quietly, kneeling beside her, wiping at her tears gently. “Hey, what’s wrong, darling?”

“Nothing,” Maggie choked. Then, “Everything. I don’t know.” She looked up at her wife and asked, quietly, “Do you believe in ghosts?”

T’Nia leaned back on her heels, frowning a little in confusion. “I don’t know,” she said slowly. “You know I believe that there’s much more to the world than we know, than we experience, but… I don’t know if that means ghosts, or God or something else entirely.” She ran her fingers gently through the loose strand of hair that had fallen across Maggie’s forehead and tucked it behind her ear.

“Why the question?”

Maggie looked down at the picture again and then gestured to the laptop. “See for yourself.”

T’Nia eyed her speculatively, and then, warily, drew the laptop closer and pressed ‘play’.


	5. FIVE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the love, guys!
> 
> Here's the next chapter. I have no idea when more is going to be up.  
> I'll try to be fast though!
> 
> Love
> 
> Annaelle
> 
> PS Love to the peeps on the JatP Discord server for telling me let Luke use pet names on Reggie ;) You know who you are.

**FIVE**

_“Wherever a Beautiful Soul Has Been There Is a Trail of Beautiful Memories…”_

_—Ronald Raegan_

**25 OCTOBER 2020**

**ALEX**

He followed Willie to the museum again, hands pushed deep into his pockets.

“You know,” he said as Willie walked straight through the closed doors and into the empty museum. “I’m really starting to think you have a thing for breaking rules, Willie.”

Willie grinned at him over his shoulder, bright and handsome and _shit_ Alex was _so gay_.

“You,” Willie said teasingly, turning to poke Alex in the chest, “ _love_ it.” And Alex… Yeah, Alex couldn’t really deny that. His crush had been obvious from day one, and the only thing that had made him feel better about it was that he’d been pretty sure it was reciprocated.

Then, of course, there had been the whole mess with Caleb, and much as he wished he’d just grabbed Willie and kissed him then and there, he _hadn’t_ and now here they were—

 _Still_ very much interested in one another, but still not quite together.

It was kind of embarrassing at this point. Even Luke and Reggie had gotten their heads out of their asses and told each other they were in love with each other.

Alex _really_ should be able to tell Willie the same—especially considering they had all but done so already. There really wasn’t another way to interpret the long, intense gazes and the hugging and the ‘I’d do anything for you’ or the ‘I’d have followed you anyway’.

“Maybe a little,” he told Willie with a grin, and the other ghost laughed delightedly, hitting him on the shoulder lightly before jumping on his skateboard and rushing off into his usual parkour of the museum while Alex went to find the bench they always ended up on so he could watch. Willie looked _free_ as he skated, wild and untamed and delighted, laughing as he went and watching him made Alex’s chest clench—in the best way.

“You’re looking wired again,” Willie told him when he’d jumped the bench and came to a stop in front of Alex, tossing his helmet and grinning at him.

Alex sighed. “Yeah. Yeah. It’s—remember Reggie’s sister?” When Willie nodded, Alex explained everything that had happened on Saturday, and the fallout—Reggie barely making it back to the studio before he broke down in tears and spent the entire night crying in his and Luke’s arms, Julie’s anxiety about their future only adding to his own, Luke being so focused on trying to make Reggie smile that he completely forgot about everything else…

“Shit man,” Willie shook his head. “That sucks.”

“Yeah,” Alex chuckled wryly. “Yeah, it does.”

“Come on,” Willie said suddenly, getting to his feet and holding his hand out to Alex. “I think you need to yell again, and no better place,” he swept his arms wide in a dramatic gesture that made Alex smile despite himself, “than an empty museum.”

“Willie,” Alex sighed, but he let himself be tugged to his feet anyway.

“Come on, hot dog,” Willie coaxed, grinning widely at him. “You remember how this goes.”

Before Alex could say anything, Willie threw himself into a loud, piercing yell, just like he had the first time they’d done this, and Alex couldn’t help but smile at this beautiful weirdo before he yelled too. The first scream that he forced from his lungs was short and explosive, and Willie grinned encouragingly at him, grabbing fistfuls of Alex’s sweater before he screamed again, louder and longer and Alex couldn’t help but join, _screaming_ his frustration about being unable to help Reggie, about the uncertainty they lived with now that Caleb had reluctantly agreed to a temporary truce and now that Maggie knew about them but hadn’t contacted them at all, about how he wished he was brave enough to just _kiss_ Willie already—

He fell silent with a gasp, panting, and Willie smirked at him, fists still clenched in Alex’s sweater, and suddenly Alex was _so_ tired of overthinking. He nearly lunged forward and curled his fingers around the back of Willie’s neck, tangling them in the other boy’s long hair, smashing their lips together in a messy, breathless kiss.

It lasted less than five seconds, and really, Alex barely had the chance to relish in the feel of Willie’s soft lips on his before the latter pulled away, his eyes wide and startled—and _damn it_.

“I thought,” Alex stammered, cheeks burning with an embarrassed blush, “I thought you wanted—”

“Yeah,” Willie nodded shakily. “Yeah, no, I do.” He swallowed thickly, and his eyes fell to Alex’s lips before he said, “Kiss me again, hot dog.” He smirked and added, “Promise I’ll kiss back this time.”

Alex grinned, feeling delighted and lightheaded and excited, and did as Willie asked.

**\--------------**

**LUKE**

Luke sat sideways on the couch in the studio, back pressed to the armrest, Reggie curled up against him, pressed into his arms, his nose tucked against Luke’s neck, breathing soft and quiet. It’d been the first time in three days that Luke had been able to get him to sit still long enough to fall asleep, and he wasn’t going to wake him up now.

They didn’t _need_ sleep anymore, not really, but they weren’t invulnerable to exhaustion.

Once Alex had returned to them after he’d talked to Maggie, after he’d relayed everything that had been said, Reggie had broken down into anxious, angry, frustrated, sad tears and had spent most of the night crying in Luke and Alex’s arms.

He’d spent the next two days in a morose, melancholy mood, bundled into the corner of the couch in the studio, barely responding to anyone, even to Luke, and he’d started pacing yesterday.

It’d taken Luke _hours_ to convince Reggie to stop rambling, to stop blaming himself for everything, to _let_ Luke take care of him for a little bit, and even longer to coax him back to the couch. Julie and Alex and even Flynn had flitted in and out of the studio, but for the most part, they’d left him and Reggie alone. Luke was pretty grateful for it—he didn’t think Reggie could stand being around anyone else right now, except maybe Alex.

He stroked his fingers through Reggie’s messy hair, relaxing back into the pillows a little.

The consequence of Reggie having been awake for this long was that Luke had been too, and he was feeling the strain of being up and aware that long too.

He rested his head back against the pillow and stared up at the ceiling, with its weird, floating chairs. He understood all too well why Reggie had taken Maggie walking out on them so hard—it’d been… it’d been hard enough acknowledging that they were dead to themselves. None of them had really allowed themselves to think about what being dead _actually_ meant to the people they’d loved.

Luke had tried, with his parents, had opened himself up to that grief because he couldn’t _not_ —

But the other boys… Reggie and his father had parted on terrible terms, and in the last six months before they’d died, Luke and Reggie had both spent every night either in the studio or with Alex. Luke had known, back then, that not being there to protect Maggie from their parents’ temper had _broken_ Reggie’s heart, and seeing her now must’ve brought all those feelings back to the surface.

It worried him more than he could say, and he knew Alex felt that way too.

Luke knew that Julie was worried too, of course, but more in the sense that she didn’t want Maggie to ruin any career she might be able to build in the future before it’d even begun. Alex had promised them all that Maggie had mostly seemed to believe him by the time they’d finished speaking, and that she hadn’t even seemed so very angry anymore, but asking someone to believe that the ghost of their brother that had died twenty-five years previously was suddenly back was a _big_ ask.

Luke hated how it was affecting Reggie.

When they’d been alive and Reggie had sunk into moods like these, Luke and Alex had been able to coax him out of them with their music, with laughter and jokes and group hugs that lasted far too long to be casual—which made sense now, knowing that they’d all, at some point, been involved with each other—but nothing had seemed to help this time until Luke had bodily dragged him over to the couch.

He rolled his head to the side when he heard a gentle _plop_ and found Alex standing in the middle of the studio sporting the _stupidest_ grin he’d ever seen on the other boy. “Well, don’t you look _happy_ ,” he said teasingly but quietly, continuing to run his fingers through Reggie’s hair soothingly.

Alex rolled his eyes before settling on the chair beside the couch. “I had a good time with Willie,” he admitted, blushing just a little. “He says hi, by the way.”

Luke grinned, waggling his eyebrows at Alex. “Sure he did. Elaborately? With ton—”

“Okay,” Alex cut him off, waving his hand impatiently, but he was still blushing and Luke had known him long enough to know he hadn’t been _that_ far off the mark. “How’s he doing?” Alex asked then, nodding towards Reggie.

“He’s sleeping,” Luke sighed, looking down at the boy that was, by now, snoring quietly against his chest. “Which is better than the relentless pacing.”

“True,” Alex nodded, as if he wasn’t an eternal pacer himself, slumping down in his chair a little. “Has Julie heard anything from Maggie yet?”

Luke shook his head. “Not that she’s told me.”

Alex heaved a sigh and slumped further, putting his feet up on the table and flashing his drumsticks into his hand to have something to fiddle with. “He’s not gonna be able to stay away much longer,” he said quietly, glancing towards Reggie, who was drooling on Luke’s shirt.

“Yeah,” Luke agreed quietly, dragging his fingers through Reggie’s hair again. “I know. I’m hoping we’ll hear something before then though. We don’t want a repeat of what happened with Ray.”

Alex winced, and yeah… that _had_ been a bit of a mess.

The day after Julie had freed them of Caleb’s stamp, Reggie had popped into the house for his usual routine of chattering at Ray while the man made breakfast. Except, this time, when Reggie had appeared in the kitchen, Ray had dropped the bowl with pancake batter to the floor and stared straight at Reggie, looking quite like… well, like he’d seen a ghost.

It’d been how they figured out other people could see them after Julie had hugged them.

They also learned, over the course of a very long morning, where Julie called in sick to school and they spent _hours_ explaining everything that’d happened to Ray, that it was temporary. That they needed to touch Julie again—another hug or something as fleeting as bumping shoulders—and they’d become corporeal and visible again.

Before Alex could say anything, the door to the studio pushed open and Julie came in, chewing on her lower lip nervously. “Oh, good,” she said, sounding relieved. “You’re all here.” She glanced towards Reggie, who still hadn’t moved, and said, “Shit. Okay. Luke,” she looked up at Luke and said, “You need to wake him up.”

“Jules, he was so tired,” Luke sighed. “If it’s not necessary—”

“It is,” Julie insisted, and then the door behind her opened further and Maggie walked in, holding hands with a tall, dark skinned woman, a baby strapped to Maggie’s chest. Luke’s mouth fell open, and when he glanced towards Alex, he saw the drummer was similarly stumped.

“Right,” Luke breathed. “Okay.”

“Are they in here?” Maggie asked, and her voice trembled just a little.

“Yeah,” Julie nodded. “Yes, sorry, they’re just.. Reggie’s asleep, they’re waking him up.”

Luke glanced up towards Maggie, towards her little family and smiled, a little bittersweet, before bending forward and running his fingers through Reggie’s hair a little more insistently. “Reg,” he said softly, shaking the other boy gently. “Wake up, baby.”

Reggie groaned wordlessly and pressed back into Luke’s touch, stretching lazily.

Luke smiled despite himself, pressing a kiss to the top of Reggie’s head. “You gotta wake up, baby.”

\----------------

**REGGIE**

Reggie blinked the sleep out of his eyes, rubbing his cheek against Luke’s chest for a second longer before what Luke had said registered and he froze. “Did… did you call me baby?”

Luke smiled at him, that slow, sweet, intense smile that made several of Reggie’s potentially vital internal organs go all warm and mushy, and rubbed his thumb over Reggie’s cheek. “Yeah, baby,” he said, his voice low and warm and unbearably _fond_ , the same way he sounded when he told Reggie he loved him.

Reggie’s cheeks _burned_ and his heart felt like it was bursting—could he still die from that? Really, the only thing Caleb should’ve done to kill him was make Luke call him ‘baby’—and he needed a second to _process_ , okay? He ducked back down and hid his burning face in the crook of Luke’s neck, exhaling shakily as he tried to deal with the onslaught of _feelings_.

This whole week had been a very _heavy_ week, emotionally, and Reggie _really_ wasn’t good at this.

Luke just huffed in amusement, curling his fingers around the back of Reggie’s neck and pressing a kiss to the side of his head.

Reggie relaxed a little, at that.

“You can’t do that in front of the others,” he muttered against Luke’s neck.

“Uh,” Luke replied hesitantly, and Reggie looked up.

Luke was biting his lip and blushing and Reggie’s stomach sank even before he noticed Alex sitting _right next to them_ and Julie standing by the door and—

His train of thought halted abruptly.

“Maggie,” he choked, rolling right off the couch in his haste to get to his feet. Luke and Alex both started towards him, but Reggie bounced back to his feet and rushed towards Julie. “Can she see me yet? Have you touched us—is that? Did she see—”

“Oh no,” Julie chuckled, “Only Alex and I saw that.”

Reggie felt his cheeks burning, but Julie took pity on him. “It’s okay,” she grinned. “I was like that too, the first time Flynn called me ‘baby’. It’s fine.”

“Someone called Reggie ‘baby’?” Maggie piped in, eyes wide. “Is it Alex or Luke? Tell me it’s Luke.”

Alex frowned. “Should I be insulted?”

Julie rolled her eyes and turned to Maggie. “I’m gonna make them visible—it can be a little… disorienting, to just see them appear…”

“Just do it,” Maggie said, although Reggie noted that she held the baby a little closer and squeezed her wife’s hand, and he was… relieved to find he wasn’t the only one that was nervous about the conversation and the meeting and just the whole situation.

Reggie exhaled shakily when Luke and Alex joined him in front of Julie, both of them pressing close, Luke’s hand slipping into his and Alex’s hand lightly resting in the middle of his back. They held out their free hands to Julie, who smiled encouragingly and folded both her hands around theirs.

Maggie’s wife—and they really should ask her name, because it was quite bothersome to call her Maggie’s wife the entire time—gasped, and Maggie’s eyes widened, and Reggie knew they were visible.

“Oh my God,” the other woman breathed. “This is real.”

Maggie turned to her with an incredulous expression. “You said you believed me.”

“Well, _yes_ ,” her wife said. “But believing is still quite a bit different than actually _seeing_.” She waved her hand at the three boys vaguely. “This is…”

“A little crazy?” Alex offered wryly.

The other woman just blinked, and Reggie turned his attention back to Maggie. “Hi,” he said shakily, clutching at Luke’s hand. “I’m sorry for last time, I didn’t mean to scare you, I just wanted to explain—I didn’t think—”

“It’s okay,” Maggie said immediately, cutting him off. “I—I get it.” She rubbed her hand over her baby’s back gently—the baby she’d _named after him_ —and took a deep breath. “I… Uh… I have questions. And I—” her lower lip trembled, and the only reason Reggie wasn’t already over there, hugging her, was because Luke was still holding his hand. “—I wanted to talk to you. There’s so many things I don’t remember, that I wish—”

“Yes,” Reggie nodded immediately. “Anything you wanna know.” He frowned and reconsidered. “I mean, as long as I know,” he smiled, “But if I don’t know, Luke or Alex probably do, I mean, they’ve been here all along too, so really—”

“Reg,” Luke cut him off, tugging at his hand quietly, “She gets it.”

Reggie glanced at Maggie, who was smiling faintly and looking between the three of them. “Right,” he said faintly. “Sorry.”

“Maybe we should sit down,” Julie suggested quietly, gesturing towards the couch and its mess of pillows. “I can get those of us who’re alive something to drink too.”

“Rude,” Reggie pouted, but he let Luke and Alex drag him towards the chair and watched as Alex dragged over the massive bean bag they’d relocated from Julie’s room to the studio a week ago. Maggie and her wife—he really needed to ask her name—gingerly took a seat on the couch, Alex plopped down in his chair again and Luke dragged Reggie down onto the bean bag with him.

Reggie couldn’t help but relax a bit with Luke’s arms casually slung around him. He leaned back against Luke just a little and eyed his sister nervously. “So who starts?” He asked.

Everyone chuckled a little at that, although Reggie found it a perfectly valid question.

“I guess,” Maggie said slowly, “I guess I can start. Uh,” she tugged on her wife’s hand lightly and continued, “this is T’Nia, my wife. We’ve been married for six years—”

“Seven,” T’Nia cut in. “Seven in three weeks.”

“Right,” Maggie grinned, her cheeks a little flushed. “Seven.” She then turned her attention to the baby and said, “This is Regina. Reggie.” She looked up with a tremulous smile, and with a start, Reggie realized he was about to burst into tears _again_.

“You named her after me,” he said hoarsely.

Alex glanced over at him with his eyebrows raised. “You already knew that.”

Reggie pouted and glared at him. “I can get emotional over it more than once, _Alexander_.”

Alex wrinkled his nose in disgust and Luke snorted with laughter. When Reggie dared look at his sister again, it was to find her grinning broadly, although her eyes were suspiciously shiny. “I can’t believe you guys are _exactly_ as I remember you.”

“Well, it hasn’t—” Alex started, “It hasn’t exactly been twenty-five years for us.”

“We didn’t… _appear_ ,” Luke explained when Maggie looked puzzled, “until Julie played our demo. That was a few weeks ago. We thought it’d been a few hours, not _years_.”

Maggie blinked and sat back heavily. “That’s insane.”

“Yeah,” Reggie nodded. “It was.”

Baby Reggie began to fuss right then, drawing everyone’s attention, and T’Nia rested a hand on Maggie’s. “Do you want me to take her?”

“No,” Maggie blurted. “That’s my emotional support baby.”

Julie snorted an abrupt laugh, but Reggie was just really confused, and a quick look at Luke and Alex told him that he wasn’t, thankfully, the only one who didn’t get the joke.

T’Nia mostly looked unimpressed. “I’m not sure how I feel about you referring to our daughter as an emotional support tool,” she said dryly, but Maggie just smirked and rocked the baby calmly, and before long, baby Reggie was dozing again.

“I’ve a question,” Luke piped up, and Reggie craned his neck to look at his boyfriend quizzically.

Maggie raised her eyebrows, and Luke continued, “You said… at the restaurant… You said you knew. About Bobby. About what he did. Why didn’t you—”

And Reggie heard what Luke was _really_ asking.

Why hadn’t she stopped him from stealing their songs, why hadn’t she told anyone, why—

Why had he gotten away with it?

Maggie sighed. “Luke, I was thirteen. It was his word against mine—and I didn’t have proof. He waited long enough to make sure people didn’t really… remember. And then he only used songs you hadn’t recorded or played in public. I didn’t have your notebooks—I didn’t have anything. I tried, I tried telling Luke’s parents, but they couldn’t prove anything either. I was the only one other than him who knew most of the songs and I only knew them because I spent so much time listening to you guys rehearse.”

Reggie swallowed thickly as Maggie looked down. “I tried,” she said quietly.

“Thank you,” Alex said, and Reggie blinked _hard_ because he’d spent all week crying, he was _done_ , he didn’t want to start all over again. “For trying.”

“Yeah,” Luke rasped, and Reggie nodded jerkily, trying not to burst into tears, because that had been the _worst_ thing about learning that Bobby had stolen their songs—no one had remembered them enough to know that they were theirs.

Knowing that Maggie, at least, had remembered them, had _known—_

It helped.

He sniffed a little and turned, hiding his face in Luke’s shoulder as he tried to get it together. Luke dug his fingers back into his hair and Reggie exhaled shakily before he went boneless against him. “Thanks,” he whispered against Luke’s skin, pressing a small kiss to the hinge of his jaw before he sat up again. Luke smiled fondly at him and rubbed his thumb over Reggie’s hot cheek and Reggie just kind of wanted to _melt_.

“So it _was_ Luke,” Maggie said gleefully, and Reggie jumped—he’d kind of _forgotten_ everyone else was still there too. When he looked back at his sister, she looked like all of her Christmases had come early.

“You are weirdly invested in this,” Julie remarked, and Reggie pointed to her as he nodded.

Maggie rolled her eyes. “Look, I’ve been wondering what the deal was since I walked in on Alex and Reggie—” Luke made a slightly punched-out noise, and Reggie patted his leg comfortingly, and Maggie continued, “I’ve literally been waiting for twenty-five years to know, okay? I _need_ to know.”

Reggie blinked at her.

She grinned back. “Come on, Reg. Dish. You’re with Luke, right?”

“I—yeah,” Reggie said slowly, cheeks flushing when Luke leaned in behind him to press a kiss to the nape of his neck. “I mean, not until after we came back though.”

“Wait, so you and Alex really _were_ —” Maggie leaned forward eagerly, and Reggie wrinkled his nose and shook his head.

“No. Nope, I’m not talking about this with you,” he squinted at her. “Unless you want me to start asking questions about your sex life?” Maggie blanched so hard Reggie and Luke both burst into laughter and Julie giggled while T’Nia patted her wife’s arm comfortingly.

“Fine, change of subject,” Maggie conceded.

“Tell me about our parents,” Reggie said before anyone else could say anything. “I wanna know what happened after we—after—”

“After we died of extreme food poisoning,” Luke cut in, hooking his chin over Reggie’s shoulder and wrapping his arms around his middle. Reggie winced a little, but leaned back into Luke’s embrace anyway, stretching his leg out a little so he could hook his ankle around Alex’s.

The blond startled at the touch, but shot him a grateful little smile anyway, and Reggie’s chest went all warm and tight and he wished, for a second, that they were alone so they could try that awesome group hug thing again. They hadn’t done that in far too long.

“You didn’t die of food poisoning,” Maggie cut in, sounding a little surprised, and Reggie’s head snapped back towards her so fast he felt his neck crack a little.

“What?”

“You didn’t—” Maggie shook head, looking between them with an expression that hovered between baffled and confused. “You didn’t die of food poisoning. You—” she blinked. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?” Reggie frowned.

“Oh, shit,” Maggie exhaled.

\--------------

**PS: I sketched Luke and Reggie napping on the couch!**   
**Check it out[here](https://cuthian.tumblr.com/post/634428769174749184/luke-and-reggie-cuddling-in-chapter-five-of). **


	6. SIX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! 
> 
> I couldn't leave you hanging too long with that cliffhanger.  
> This is, for now, the last chapter. 
> 
> I have one more "prequel" of sorts that I want to write, about how Alex and Reggie actually ended up fooling around, but other than that I don't have anything planned just yet. 
> 
> Please, do let me know if there are things you'd like to see in this universe though, and I'll definitely consider writing them! 
> 
> Lots of love  
> Annaelle

**SIX**

_“I May Not Have Gone Where I Intended To Go, But I Think I Have Ended Up Where I Needed To Be.”_

_—Douglas Adams_

**25 OCTOBER 2020**

**ALEX**

Alex prided himself on being the levelheaded one.

Luke was the impulsive one, the proud one, who ran into things headfirst with no consideration for circumstances or consequences whatsoever—unless it concerned the band—and Reggie just went through life without thinking too hard about anything.

Alex couldn’t help but think too hard about literally _everything_ , but even he hadn’t seen this coming.

“What do you mean,” he said shakily, blindly reaching out behind him until he found Reggie—too few rings on his fingers to be Luke—, who took his hand and squeezed it so hard it nearly hurt.

Maggie looked between them with wide eyes, swallowing thickly before she said, not looking away from them, “T’Nia, can you take Reg? I think she needs her diaper changed.”

T’Nia nodded wordlessly and took the baby, turning to Julie with a small smile. “Can you show me the bathroom, please? And I wouldn’t say no to a cup of coffee, if that offer for a drink still stands.” Alex tried to smile at Julie when she looked at them, but he wasn’t sure if it came across right.

“Sure,” Julie said. “Let’s go.”

Maggie folded her arms around herself and heaved another heavy sigh. “Okay,” she began, chewing on her lower lip. “Okay. Uh… What do you… what do you remember, exactly?”

“Just,” Reggie choked, “Just getting sick, and… the ambulance.”

Alex nodded shakily but didn’t say what he knew Luke was remembering too. Reggie had been the first to—to go. Alex remembered, hazily, turning his head to look at the others and finding Reggie throwing up blood, paler than he had ever seen him, his eyes rolling back into his head and then a lot of shouting—

He was pretty sure he’d heard one of the paramedics say, horrified, “Jesus, there’s nothing we can do—he’s bleeding out on the inside,” before he had passed out and then floated out of his body too.

In hindsight, maybe he should’ve known that it hadn’t been just food poisoning.

“Right,” Maggie said faintly. “Okay. Well. You’re not _entirely_ wrong.” She looked down briefly and Alex had a _bad_ feeling about this whole thing. “I found out all of this,” Maggie continued, “when I was in my twenties. I looked up court records, police reports, autopsy results… I didn’t know, when I was younger. Our parents… well, they weren’t exactly concerned with keeping up to date with what happened to you.”

Alex squeezed Reggie’s hand, because he didn’t need to be looking at him to know that this would hit him _hard_. Even though he and his dad had parted on _really_ shitty terms after he’d caught Alex and Reggie kissing—they really hadn’t been as sneaky as they’d thought—Reggie had _always_ held out hope he’d be able to go home someday.

“You can say it,” Reggie said hoarsely. “That they hated me.”

Maggie’s expression crumpled. “They didn’t. I mean,” she shook her head and exhaled shakily. “Dad was an _absolute miserable asshole_ , but I still think he hated himself more than he ever hated you _or_ me. And mom…”

“…was a drug addict and a drunk,” Reggie whispered, Alex winced a little.

They’d all known, really. Reggie’s parents had insane, violent arguments about money, Reggie and Maggie, work and their drinking habits nearly every day, and when they weren’t fighting, they were drinking or smoking, together or separately.

Even before he and Alex had started fooling around, Reggie had spent a fair few nights sleeping at Alex’s house to get away from the constant shouting.

“Yeah,” Maggie sighed. “Yeah.”

“So what did you find out?” Alex asked, scooting his chair a little closer to the other boys.

“You were killed,” Maggie admitted, and Alex inhaled sharply as Reggie squeezed his hand _hard_. “The man who did it, he’s in prison. He got life, without parole for your murder. He tried to claim insanity, say that ghosts made him do it, but…” she shrugged. “It was pretty clear that it was premeditated.”

“What?” Luke choked faintly.

“The man that sold you the hot dogs,” Maggie elaborated. “He confessed. He spiked everything with sulfuric acid.” Alex blinked in confusion, and he supposed the other two must’ve as well because Maggie immediately added, “Car battery acid. He dipped everything, from the hotdogs to the condiments, even the buns, in it. He didn’t kill anyone else, he must’ve changed the containers when you guys—”

“He was putting out fresh stuff,” Luke said suddenly. “When we got there, he was putting out new containers, he said—he said it was a busy night.”

“That’s why he wasn’t concerned when I spilled pickle juice on his battery cables,” Alex murmured, staring off into the distance as he tried to… tried to _understand_. They’d been going to that specific street dog cart for _ages_ , they’d known the guy by name—

“Why would he—” Alex choked. “What did we—”

“I don’t know,” Maggie said softly. “He never gave a reason beyond ‘ghosts made me do it’.”

Alex felt like throwing up all over again, and when he looked at Reggie and Luke, he could tell they felt the same. It’d been one thing when it’d been their own bad luck that’d gotten them killed—being _murdered_ though… by someone they’d known…

“You read my autopsy report?” Reggie asked quietly, looking at his sister with an expression that bordered somewhere between horrified and confused, and _yeah_ —

Yeah, that was easier to focus on.

“You said you’d seen our bodies too,” he piped in, ignoring Reggie’s horrified gasp. “When I talked to you… after the restaurant, you said—”

“Yeah,” Maggie sighed. “Yeah, I did. When we got the call—mom was… She had to go identify you. And Alex.” Alex startled, and Maggie shot a small, pained smile at him. “Your parents wouldn’t—they said they didn’t have a son, so they asked mine and Luke’s parents. Mom… Mom couldn’t really handle it. They wouldn’t let me in at first, but she insisted, so I—I saw.”

“God,” Luke choked and Alex let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, tears rolling down his cheeks. He’d known his parents weren’t okay with the band, with him being gay, with… with _him_ , but he hadn’t thought they’d blatantly refuse to acknowledge him.

“Mags,” Reggie started, but Maggie shook her head sharply.

“Look,” she said, “I’ve gone through _a lot_ of therapy. It’s not okay, but… I’ve dealt with it.”

Alex swallowed thickly and looked away, refocusing his attention on his and Reggie’s hands, on the way their fingers looked all tangled together, on the difference between their hands, because this whole thing was threatening to overwhelm him and to pace, he’d have to let go of Reggie and Luke and he didn’t think that’d help him _at all_.

“You’re buried together,” Maggie said then, and Alex looked up at her with tears still burning in his eyes. Maggie smiled a tremulous smile at him and said, “Luke’s parents arranged it all. Your dad even helped me get out of school so I could attend the funeral,” she told Luke with a small smile.

“He did?” Luke rasped. “They—they buried us together?”

“Yeah,” Maggie nodded. “There were _so many_ people. I don’t remember… a lot, but I remember standing up front with your mom and dad, and… I just… I couldn’t see the end of the crowd.” She smiled through her tears and added, “They played all your favorite songs, and there were pictures of the three of you _everywhere_.”

“Oh,” Luke choked, and Alex kind of _broke_. He slipped out of the chair and shoved Reggie and Luke over just a little so he could squeeze onto the beanbag with them. Luke immediately slung an arm around him and Reggie turned to bury his face in Alex’s shoulder instead, clutching at Alex’s shirt with a desperate grip, and Alex exhaled shakily, hiding his own tears in Reggie’s hair, clutching at his two friends as desperately as they clutched back.

When he finally looked up again, a minute, ten minutes, an hour, a year later, Maggie was crying too, watching them with her hands pressed to her lips, grief and heartbreak all too easy to read on her face.

“Your mom,” she whispered when she realized he was watching, “visits every year. Twice. Once on your birthday and once on the day you died. She paid Luke’s parents back for the funeral. I don’t think she—she does loves you, Alex. I thought you should know that.”

Alex felt much like she’d grabbed inside his chest and _squeezed_ his heart, but he managed a choked, “Thank you,” before he buried his face back in Reggie’s hair.

\---------

**REGGIE**

It took them a while to stop crying, although Reggie didn’t mind being sandwiched between his two favorite people so very much, even if he’d have preferred a happier, less teary occasion.

“Thank you for telling us,” he told Maggie hoarsely, sitting up as much as he could with both Luke and Alex half on top of him. Maggie nodded at him with a small, pained smile on her face, arms still wrapped around herself, and suddenly Reggie couldn’t _stand_ being this far away from her.

“Guys, get off me,” he told Alex and Luke, tapping Alex’s hip—the nearest part of him that he could reach—and elbowing Luke in the side. “Let go.”

He got to his feet as gracefully as he could manage and told his sister— _his little sister, who’d gone through her entire life without him, who’d grown into a woman with a wife and a daughter and an amazing job without him_ —“I’m going to hug you. And I’m probably gonna cry again, so no judgement, okay?”

Maggie snorted a laugh but nodded nonetheless and got to her feet too, looping her arms around Reggie’s neck as soon as he was within reach, holding him so tight that if he still needed to breathe, he’d probably be choking, but as it was, he hugged her back just as tightly. “I missed you so much,” Maggie whispered, her voice a little muffled against Reggie’s shoulder, and Reggie could barely keep from falling to pieces right then and there.

“Me too, Mags,” he choked, tightening his arms around her. “I’m _so_ proud of you.”

Maggie let out a soft sob at that, and Reggie regretted saying it immediately—he hadn’t meant to make her cry—he wasn’t even sure what had made him say the words in the first place.

“Thank you,” Maggie told him in a hushed whisper. “I love you, Reg.”

A few tears rolled down his cheeks, and he felt warmer and stronger, just like he had when Julie had told him and the others that she loved them, and he squeezed his sister tighter. “I love you too, Mags.”

They broke apart when the garage door opened and Julie and T’Nia walked in. Reggie wiped at his eyes and smiled a little when he saw his boyfriend and his best friend surreptitiously do the same from the corner of his eye.

Maggie smiled too.

“So,” she said, her voice just barely trembling. “Do you wanna hold your niece?”

Reggie nodded jerkily, although he probably looked just as freaked out as he felt—what if he dropped her?—and the others chuckled at him. Luke and Alex came to stand next to him as T’Nia walked over with his niece cradled in her arms, and for the first time since he’d died, Reggie felt that everything might actually turn out okay.

**THE END.**

**FOR NOW.**

**PS: For those of you who would like to cry with me over the boys being buried together, I[sketched](https://cuthian.tumblr.com/post/634428977040228352/the-grave-discussed-in-chapter-six-of-becoming-a) their tombstone. **


End file.
